Hey, expecting parents! Do you want a unique name for your boy, but you don’t want to just make something up? Consider these actual Biblical names taken from the Book of Chronicles! Hardly used at all! This is just from the first two chapters — there are nine chapters of geneologies, which may be why nobody reads Chronicles.

I’ve been Tweeting about the ESPN book, but this is so astounding I felt I had to quote it in full. I’m not quite done with the book, but it has to be the single dumbest thing in it, one of the dumbest things I have ever read. I give you Keith Clinkscales, Senior VP for “Content Development”, whatever the hell that is, quoted verbatim with my annotations:

I do not believe Stuart Scott was the first African American on ESPN[1], but he certainly was influential because on SportsCenter, early on, he used hip-hop vernacular; he said things on the air that I knew when I heard them that the white producers who had approved it didn’t know what he was talking about[2]. So it was like our own little codified thing. It was almost like, “If he’s cool enough to say that on the air, and no one’s stopping him, then this network is cool enough to watch[3].”

I don’t want to commit hyperbole here[4], but Stuart’s delivery on SportsCenter — his willingness to stick with it despite getting complaints[5], and the producers letting him stick with it — is one of the great cultural moments that African American culture has ever had[6]. It made us relevant in sports[7].

Taking a look now at the track of the tornado… As bad as things are, it could have been far worse. The tornado, as far as I can tell, bore several degrees to the east as it approached the Alabama campus. If it had been even a couple of degrees less, it might have gone up Paul Bryant Drive rather than 15th Street. The latter is, or was, a main road but mostly businesses. Bryant Drive goes through the eastern part of the Alabama campus. Although the center of gravity of the campus has shifted somewhat since my day, more toward the river on the west, there are two major dorms (Tutwiler Hall and Burke Hall) and the athletic dorm (Bryant Hall, naturally) that would have been in its path.

Moreover, if it had gone just a little bit to the west, it very well could have hit Druid City Hospital, which is located where Bryant Drive merges into University Boulevard; as it was, the tornado must have almost clipped the hospital, as many of the destroyed homes and apartment complexes are all but in the hospital’s shadow. DCH is the major hospital in the area, and the only real trauma center in the county. If it had been knocked out, in addition to whatever loss of life there was in the hospital itself the city’s rescue efforts would have been crippled, with only the smaller satellite hospital in Northport available this side of Birmingham.

It doesn’t really help, I guess, but it really could have been much worse.

The city right now is kind of odd. Most of the power is back on, and most of the city is now relatively normal. But there’s a big hole in the middle of town right now. You can circle around it… but the main shopping district for the city is closed, and much of it is gone. City workers are doing a great job at something that’s really not what they were trained for. It’s going to be a while before we find a new normal.

Okay, so after (apparently, the recount is underway, but his situation looks good) making the runoff in the gubernatorial primary, in a huge surprise, and being in good shape to win it… after that, Robert Bentley fired a bunch of his campaign staff. He brought in non-Alabamians, led by Mike Huckabee’s son-in-law, to fill their roles. I am increasingly of the opinion that he will blow this, and Bradley Byrne will get the nomination.

Yes, “Troy King” has gone down… uh, I mean lost to Luther Strange in the GOP AG nomination race. Pretty badly, it appears. He’ll only have a few more months to execute people for the state before he has to go freelance.

Early returns! Five percent in, and St. Roy is in fourth place. Right now, the GOP runoff would be Byrne vs. Bentley, but I still expect Tim James to catch Bentley. Sparks has a big early lead on Davis; in a low-turnout election, the machine help that Sparks had could be determinitive. Luther Strange up early on “Troy King”. And Twinkle! is leading in her PSC race, and could avoid a runoff. Only really bad news is that Dale Peterson is out of the runoff for the GOP Ag Commissioner spot, but it’s early. I know he’s got one more great ad in him.